A vice minister has quit and a minister has found herself under pressure to resign over what initially appeared like an unremarkable appointment at Lithuania’s national railway company. Observers say politicians should have been mindful of the optics.
Last week, the state-run Lithuanian Railways (LTG) appointed Agnė Belickaitė as its chief corporate affairs officer, to take care of the company’s public relations and brand image. However, this very move got it into an escalating scandal.
Belickaitė, it turned out, is the wife of one of the vice ministers at the Ministry of Transport, one that oversees LTG. Moreover, she is a classmate and friend of Aušrinė Armonaitė, Lithuania’s economy minister and leader of the liberal Freedom Party that delegated the transport minister.
LTG says Belickaitė won the appointment in a fair and transparent competition. The company knew about her links with the transport vice minister, Vincas Jurgutis, and did not think it was an issue.
“We have an internal screening procedure to review and assess conflicts of interest,” Egidijus Lazauskas, CEO of LTG, said. “And when we evaluated the potential for a conflict of interest [in the appointment], we did not see any threat.”
To prove the transparency of the appointment, LTG says it will request an external audit.
Belickaitė also said she expected questions about her family links to arise.
“What I could not have expected was an accusation. I expected to be asked questions, I would answer them and we would part ways,” she added.
However, the issue was brought to public debate by the journalist Edmundas Jakilaitis, who expressed doubts about the transparency of the appointment. LTG said that Jakilaitis’ wife, Rasa Jakilaitienė, was also a shortlisted candidate for the position.
Bad appearances
Economy Minister Armonaitė said she or her party exerted no pressure to get Belickaitė appointed, although she admitted that there could be an appearance of foul play.
“Agnė Belickaitė was a classmate of mine, and […] we studied political science together,” Armonaitė said. “But I want to say that there are a lot of people with whom we studied at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, and I do not believe that I have any special relations with them.”
Armonaitė’s own Economy Ministry, she insisted, has no influence on LTG and, moreover, she did not even know that her friend was seeking a job with the railway company.
“I actually found out about it when it became public knowledge,” Armonaitė said.
Meanwhile Jurgutis, the vice minister of transport and a member of Armonaitė’s Freedom Party, said he knew about his wife’s job application. He did not inform the party leader, he said, precisely to avoid influencing the competition.
“I did not do or intend to do anything that could in any way influence the outcome of the competition in the slightest way,” he said. “As far as nepotism is concerned, let me be very clear that there was none.”
Pressure from president
The issue got even more heated when President Gitanas Nausėda joined the debate, saying that he saw it as a case of nepotism.
“I think this is a pathetic example of low culture. We were promised a different political culture in 2020, but if we take a look at the series of stories or cases of nepotism, we have to conclude that the political culture has seen little change,” Nausėda said during an interview with TV3 on Wednesday night. “For this reason, I think the minister herself [Armonaitė] should make a decision, or the prime minister should make a decision. […] All kinds of solutions are possible, including resignation.”
President Nausėda made the comment on the TV3 show Focus of Attention, hosted by Edmundas Jakilaitis.
Following the interview, Transport Vice Minister Jurgutis announced he would resign from his post.
On Thursday morning, his wife Belickaitė also said she would leave the position at the LTG.
“It’s absurd. I’m leaving because neither the Lithuanian Railways, nor my husband, nor, for that matter, myself, deserve all this,” she posted on Facebook. “Let me reiterate that nobody has done anything wrong in this situation. The competition was open, transparent and professional. […] The president and other politicians are pathetically trying to capitalise on this opportunity to bash their opponents.”
Few good options
Observers say the Freedom Party should have handled the matter better and its leader should have been informed earlier about the potentially sensitive situation.
“It is precisely the need to keep everyone informed, so that everyone knows what processes are taking place and is able to evaluate them,” Rima Urbonaitė, a political scientist at Mykolas Romeris University, told LRT TV.
It would have been better for a candidate closely linked with the Freedom Party not to run for a position in a state-owned company controlled by the party’s minister.
In the current situation, she says, there are few options.
“I would not rule out the possibility that someone might have to give up his or her position,” Urbonaitė said, without specifying who that should be.
